---
title: "FreeBSD 8.0 Release Process"
sidenav: download
---

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  <h1>Introduction</h1>

  <p>This is the release schedule for FreeBSD 8.0.  For more
    information about the release engineering process, please see the <a href="../../../releng/index.html" shape="rect">Release Engineering</a> section of the
    web site.</p>

  <p>General discussions about the pending release and known issues should be
    sent to the public
    <a href="mailto:FreeBSD-current@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">freebsd-current</a> mailing list.
    <a href="../../../doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/freebsd-glossary.html#mfc-glossary" shape="rect">MFC</a>
    requests should be sent to
    <a href="mailto:re@FreeBSD.org" shape="rect">re@FreeBSD.org</a>.</p>

  <h1>Schedule</h1>

  <table class="tblbasic">
    <tr class="heading">
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Action</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Expected</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Actual</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Description</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Initial release schedule announcement</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">-</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">29&nbsp;March&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers send announcement email to developers with a
	rough schedule.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release schedule reminder</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">-</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;May&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers send reminder announcement e-mail to developers
	with updated schedule.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Code slush</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;June&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">1&nbsp;June&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers announce a slowdown in feature development for
	the release -- developers are requested to coordinate any
	non-refinement changes or late-arriving features with the release
	engineering team.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Code freeze begins</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">25&nbsp;June&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">27&nbsp;June&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Release Engineers announce that all further commits to the head
	(and forthcoming RELENG_8 branch) will require explicit approval.
	Certain blanket approvals will be granted for narrow areas of
	development, documentation improvmeents, etc.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">BETA1</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">29&nbsp;June&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6&nbsp;July&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">First beta test snapshot.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">BETA2</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">6&nbsp;July&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">17&nbsp;July&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Second beta test snapshot.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RELENG_8 branch</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">-</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">3&nbsp;August&nbsp;2009 - in progress</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Subversion branch created, propagated to CVS and Perforce; future
        release engineering proceeds on this branch although code freeze/
        slush continue for some time on head.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">BETA3</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">13&nbsp;July&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">24&nbsp;August&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Third beta test snapshot.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">BETA4</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">5&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">7&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Begin BETA4 builds.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RC1</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">14&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">First release candidate.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RC2</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">21&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">28&nbsp;October&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Second release candidate.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RC3</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">-</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">12&nbsp;November&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Third release candidate.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RELEASE build</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">28&nbsp;September&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">22&nbsp;November&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8.0-RELEASE built.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RELEASE announcement</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">TBD</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">25&nbsp;November&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">8.0-RELEASE press release.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">Turn over to the secteam</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">TBD</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">01&nbsp;December&nbsp;2009</td>
      <td rowspan="1" colspan="1">RELENG_8_0 branch is handed over to
	the FreeBSD Security Officer Team in one or two weeks after the
	announcement.</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

  <h1>Status / TODO</h1>
  <a href="http://wiki.freebsd.org/8.0TODO" shape="rect">http://wiki.freebsd.org/8.0TODO</a>

  <h1>Additional Information</h1>

  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://wiki.freebsd.org/8.0TODO/" shape="rect">FreeBSD 8.0 release
      engineering wiki page</a>, which includes todo lists, scheduling
      information, binary compatibility information, and more.</li>
    <li><a href="../../../releng/index.html" shape="rect">FreeBSD Release Engineering website</a></li>
  </ul>


  </div>
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        </div>
        
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